Loaves are ready to be baked when they have doubled their original size.

The baking temperature depends somewhat on the amount of sugar and shortening used in the dough. With an increase in sugar and shortening, there should be a decrease in temperature. The best temperature for plain bread dough is from 380° to 400° F. Loaves weighing 1 1/2 pounds should be baked from 50 to 60 minutes at from 380° to 400° F.

A uniform temperature during the entire baking period gives good results, although many authorities believe the temperature should be increased after the first 15 minutes. Dough should rise, or spring, during the first 5 minutes it is in the oven. At the end of 15 minutes it should begin to brown, and as baking continues the bread should draw away from the sides of the tin and brown on all sides.

If a soft, shiny crust is desired, the loaves should be greased 5 minutes before baking is completed.

Bread should be removed from the pans as soon as it is taken from the oven. The loaves should be cooled quickly, in circulating air and not covered.

"Rope" In Bread

A condition in bread that causes considerable trouble and financial loss in bakeries and occasionally in home baking is called "ropiness," and the bread is known as "ropy bread." Such bread for several hours after baking looks, smells, and tastes like any well-made bread; then there quickly develops a most disagreeable odor. When the loaf is broken, the interior is slimy, sticky, and stringy. Such bread, of course, is not fit for food.

"Rope" is the result of the action of a form of bacteria which, if present, is found in the flour. It develops only in very hot weather. The organism chiefly responsible for ropiness is said to be generally distributed in the soil. The best flours may be infected, and it is impossible in buying flour to know whether the organism is present.

When the difficulty is found, all utensils and containers used for flour, bread-making, or storing bread should be sterilized by boiling. In making bread from the remainder of the flour on hand or from additional flour of the same brand bought during the hot weather, vinegar should be added to the liquid in the proportion of two per cent of the amount of flour, or about 1 tablespoon to each pound of flour. In all other respects the bread should be made in the usual way. The bread will not have as good a bloom as under normal conditions, but otherwise it is not inferior.